KT by-election (11)

Time to eat humble pie. I’ve been hitting out at RDC from a very long, long time ago (ok lah, from about December ’04, when I got the bloggeritis itch).

TMI had this report on a Malaysian being RDC’s top O-level student –

Singapore’s top student is Malaysian

SINGAPORE, Jan 13 – Singapore’s top O-level student was not here to collect her results and may not even continue her studies in Singapore.

Haw Sue Hern, from CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, had just returned to her home in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, after a holiday in Beijing when she learnt of her results. Her family had planned their holiday before the announcement last week that the O-level results would be released yesterday.

Sue Hern’s score of 10 A1s made her the top O-level performer out of 36,640 students this year.

“I am so surprised with the results … I wish I could collect my results personally but my parents had planned the holiday already,’ she said in a phone interview.

Her father is an engineer and her mother, a teacher in Malaysia. Sue Hern and her younger sister, a Secondary 3 student at the same school, lived in a hostel here during the school term.

The 16-year-old attended CHIJ St Nicholas on a scholarship which did not have a bond. “I was scared to come to Singapore all by myself but I was impressed by how friendly the teachers were. My parents encouraged me, too,’ she said.

Her secret to success was consistent hard work, she added. “I did my revision regularly and reviewed past test papers.”

She is currently enrolled in an 11-month pre-university course at Taylor’s University College, a private education institution in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

The triple-science student has not decided whether to continue with the course or enrol in a junior college in Singapore. She hopes to become a doctor eventually.

Her form teacher, Quek Soo Hiang, said she was surprised when Sue Hern told her after her O-level exams in November that she would be returning to Malaysia to study, and was not going on to a junior college here.

“I wish that she would stay on in Singapore but it is her choice,” she said.

Finishing close behind Sue Hern was her classmate and fellow Malaysian Cheong Jia Ee, and Anderson Secondary student Low Wan Ting. Both of them scored nine A1s and one A2.

“I’ve known Sue Hern since Primary 1 when we were in the same school in Malaysia. I am happy that both of us did so well in the O levels,’ she said.

Nearly all – 99.9 per cent – of those who sat for last year’s O levels received certificates. Of these, 80.8 per cent or 29,592 had five or more O-level passes, while 94.6 per cent or 34,675 had three or more O-level passes. – The Straits Times

Will Haw Sue Hern be able to continue her quest for academic excellence and eventually, achieve her ultimate goal of joining the noble Society of the Hippocratic Oath?

Time will tell, I guess.

And considering the typical bureaucratic red tape she needs to go through via the Malaysian education system, can she have the necessary will and perseverance to navigate the corridors of ‘segmented’ meritocracy (segmented as in quota percentage… yadda, yadda)?

Or will we witness a rare moment of exhilarated recognition and awareness normally unseen from our political leaders, rushing hand over foot, stumbling all over each other, to offer ‘the moon’ to Hua Sue Hern and in the process,melaung2kan demokrasi di Malaysia, tanah air tercinta?

Or perhaps, Hua Sue Hern can take the route of least resistance, just like the bloke below did –